Batboard

Looking for some information on vehicular repeaters. I know that vertex and pyramid communications makes in-vehicular repeaters. I was wondering if any one has either units in service and which is the better of the two units. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks Richard

i've had great luck with the pyramid units!

I have worked with the pyramid repeaters and they aren't bad. They are kind of expensive as well. Only 2 watts output. Another way you can do an invehicle application is take a rick controller, mount it in the vehicle, connect the accessory connectors of each radio to the RICK and cross patch the two radios. This will give you a full power in vehicle cross patch. I use to have a cross patch set up in my truck using a RICK and two mobiles with 16 pin accessory cnnectors.

If you need the fancy multi-unit functionality of the real vehicle repeaters, then your stuck with it. Pyramids are really expensive, like well over $1k. The Vertex one does the same thing, is multi-channel, and costs about 1/2 as much but I've never used one. Can't speak for them. We have several Pyramids, all work fine.

If you only need one unit, just do the RICK or similar route and use another mobile radio.

Pyramid all the way. The RICK route is ok, but you will lose functionality. Channel changing etc is not possible. Also you can inband the lower wattage without desense. 2 watts is plenty unless you want to be miles away from your vehicle when using the unit. Which is for the most part pointless.


Now you have got TWO high power radios going back and fourth which, if your car isn't on, will be a huge problem fast.

2w should be more than enough. The old Motorola PAC RT ran 1/4w.

We have used several of the Vertex VXR1000's with excellent results. However all the ones we have in service are cross-band. The power output is programmable per channel and can be set for .5 watts, 1 watt, 2.5 watts or 5 watts. This is nice since you can program a different power output per channel and use the channel selector knob to select the power output you need.

I have seen the pyramid repeaters work well, but never in band. It will produce horrible results.

The other big advantage of the Vertex over the Pyramid is the Vertex can be had for approx $500 and the Pyramid is $1200+

Just my $.02

Wes

I will also second the VXR1000's....here in portable hell, i have put in 4 or 5 maybe, crossbanded and they definetly do the job....

The NCSHP has a boatload of the Vertex units in cross band (high band/low band) service. There have been a few bad units in the bunch, but the usual was either they worked perfectly or they didn't work at all, no in-between. So if it works right off the bat, it should give ya no trouble.

Hate to ressurect an old thread.... BUT

Has anybody with a Vertex VXR-1000 ever found that when another VHF signal is 'on-the-air', the unit will not key up to repeat something?

In other words, our setup may be...

450Mhz Mobile
150 Mhz Repeater

If a radio is talking on 149.850, the 150 Mhz VXR-1000 sees that and flashes its COR light, and will NOT repeat anything from the 450 Mhz mobile. In effect, other people on the scene (doing other things) can take this repeater right off the air.

Thanks,
Jon

One trick is to program more than one channel with the same info but increase the squelch settings by a bit each time you add that channel. By switching the channel selector, you can choose your squelch level and determine which level performs under the critical circumstances. Thay way you're using the channel selector as a proxy squelch control, and once you determine which squelch levels don't measure up you can reprogram the ones that aren't satisfactory or you can continue to use the channels as proxy squelch settings. The NCSHP units are programmed with 16 different squelch settings.

Wes wrote: I have seen the pyramid repeaters work well, but never in band. It will produce horrible results.

We are currently running the Pyramid with an in-band application on VHF, and with appropriate mobile BpBr cavity and notch filter, it works much better than our former crossband setup. It sounds great, and desense isn't an issue for the end users.

110w mobiles using 151-155 MHz, repeater on 172 MHz...seperation is about 4 feet on the rear end of P71's and 9C1's, SUV's have about 10 feet with the repeater antenna on the front fender.